Drawings, Paintings, and other bits of art which are (mostly) related to comic books and other pop-culture ephemera. I hope to post something at least every week or two, so check back semi-often.

Click on the pictures to embiggen.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

RELAUNCHED - Watchmen Too: The Squid

Watchmen Too - The Squid

With the new Watchmen sequels/prequels being launched by DC (I'll give 'em a shot and see what happens), the great Relaunched site is doing their own versions of Watchmen Too. Being such a big fan of Watchmen, I thought I'd play along.

If you ask me, one of coolest characters from "Watchmen", after Dr. Manhattan and Rorschach, was The Squid--which is why I was so disappointed it didn't get a chance to be seen in the movie... well, aside from the acronym S.Q.U.I.D., but that really doesn't count, IMHO.

Here's the text portion of my story submission:

Engineered from the cloned brain of a telepath, The Squid is the centerpiece in Adrian Veidt’s plan to save the world from itself.

Within the tank, The Squid grows, reaching self-awareness and begins to develop its burgeoning psychic powers. The Squid learns Veidt is planning to teleport it into the heart of New York City, killing millions, with the hope of preventing World War III and saving billions. The Squid is to be the savior of mankind, a role it gradually accepts.

Using its growing psychic abilities, The Squid begins to direct Veidt's geneticists how to build a better monster and correcting any errors they make. It also telepathically suggests to Veidt how best to carry out his plans, as well as people who may stand in his way--and how he may have to deal with those people.

The Squid was created by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.

But, you may be asking yourself, how did The Squid "influence" Veidt before he was created? Just to tie everything up in a nice, little bow: part of ending to the story would involve The Squid using the time-traveling particles, Tachyons, to send a telepathic message to Veidt back in time, giving him the idea to build the Squid in the first place. The Squid also suggests that The Comedian will have to be killed when he finds out about it, which starts "The Watchmen" storyline going in the first place.

Well, on the the steps used to create this monstrosity... :-)

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STEP ONE: I used a 7-1/2" x 10" piece of 102 Crescent Illustration Board, primed with a mixture of size (glue) and gesso. I then did the painting from black and white acrylic paint. Once finished, I through it on my scanner and imported it into PhotoShop.

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STEP TWO: In PhotoShop, I created a new layer set to "Multiply" and laid down the flat colors.

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STEP THREE: On the "Multiply" layer, I added highlights and shadows (Save often, kids!). On a new layer, I also added the highlighted reflections on The Squids eye. I also used the "Blur" filter to the sides around the eye to shift focus to the eye, itself.

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STEP FOUR: I cropped the cover a little on the sides and added the logo and side panel to bring it in line with the "Watchmen" prequels/sequels and called it "Done!"